Forty years ago, they put men on the moon....

Was just reading some comments at Americablog, people reminiscing about where they were forty years ago yesterday, and what they felt about it as children.

So I added mine. I was at my aunt's house in NH. An awful lot of my extended family was there, although I am not sure if we were actually there to watch, or if it was some other fete...

I was ten. It was exciting for us all, and amazing, mind-boggling.

Presiding over the event was my maternal step-grandmother, and she was approaching her 100th birtday. My cousins and I always used to say she looked like George Washington on the one dollar bill. (that was affectionately kidding, btw...)

And as the transmission went on, she got really put out with us, because she didn't believe it for one second. And 'pitied' us for being so gullible. 'It's staged,' she said. 'Everyone KNOWS that there is no air up there to breathe.'

Who would of thought she was the grandma of all the conspiracy theorists to follow her in the following decades?

Hadn't thought of it in a long while, but had to smile.

At least it was more fun than begging my other grandmother to watch Alan Shepard get shot into space. It was a fine day, and according to her, children belonged outside, getting fresh air. (She still had black and white tee-vee.) She relented, but on one condition: we had to kneel and pray a rosary, facing the wall away from the tee-vee, so we did it all right, craning our necks to see the screen, and doing Hail Marys and Our Fathers to beat the band.

It is funny to me to relate that now, but at the time, I was really pissed off.

Tja, defining moments in history. It always amazes me that one event causes an indelible mark on collective consciousness. You know where you were, what you were doing, shared your feelings... It doesn't happen that often, thank goodness. Although I prefer the ones where your jaw drops for amazement, delight, the ones that make you feel proud, although it isn't your personal acheivement....